Cross-posted from: https://feddit.de/post/10335519

The first textbook for the new subject, called The Russian Army in Defence of the Fatherland, has been produced by leading Russian education publisher Enlightenment. Among its authors are two senior figures who work for the defence ministry and Kremlin newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta.

Its 368 pages are filled with stories describing the “heroic achievements of Russian soldiers” from the 13th Century to the present day.

  • Mannivu@feddit.it
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    37
    ·
    3 months ago

    I mean, this is less than surprising. Common media in Russia tell Russian people lies forged by the Cremlin, why shouldn’t textbooks? It’s perfectly logic from the Cremlin’s perspective. Despicable, but logic.

    • yeather@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      23
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      Motherland is used to refer to Russia as a whole, while Fatherland is generally used militarily. This is less common now adays, but Fatherland was most likely used to display masculinity and strength.

      • Greyghoster@aussie.zone
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        8
        ·
        3 months ago

        Thanks. It was not obvious. I wonder how well the distinction is appreciated by the target young audience? I know that the young seem to simplify their use of language.

        • yeather@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          3 months ago

          It probably isn’t, if anything the instructor might have to explain why it says fatherland and not motherland in the first place.

      • Jaccident@lemm.ee
        cake
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        edit-2
        3 months ago

        In fairness to that poster though, the article text is in the body of the post, so a translation error was ported over to Lemmy. This has nothing to do with “read past the headline”; they did read past the headline but the article body was wrong when transposed.

        No need to be snarky; it’s not the poster’s fault that there was an error at source.

        Edit - For context, the above comment is not what I was responding to. I don’t know if the above user has edited their comments, or if a Lemmy bug means I saw some old comment, but the comment I was responding to was belittle the poster for not “reading past the headline”.

        • yeather@lemmy.ca
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          3 months ago

          Yeah you saw an older comment I didnt write, I downvoted it since the other guy had translated wrong.

    • hanekam@lemmy.world
      cake
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      6
      ·
      3 months ago

      Russians don’t really use motherland. Rodina, which means birth-land, is translated that way because there’s no simple English term to convey that

  • Optional@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    19
    arrow-down
    11
    ·
    3 months ago

    not that anyone needs to be, but to be fair, the American government is big on telling teens to join the army too.

    • hoshikarakitaridia@feddit.de
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      3 months ago

      Also not great, although I have to say that it’s quite a lot easier to criticize the US military than it is to criticize the Russian military.

    • RatBin@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      edit-2
      3 months ago

      All western countries are telling their youth - one way or another - are doing it, in the wake of Russia’s militarization. As for the US asking their citizens to join the army, it became a meme of some sort due to how frequent it happens to be, but other countries, save for a couple of them, are not better. Russia has had many spots and I watched one of them. It’s exactly as you imagine that. Very glorious and macho. Comically so. But you know wars aren’t like that.

      edit:

      “We cannot convey alternative viewpoints to the students. So this textbook will assist you in addressing children’s questions and providing accurate coverage of certain events.”

      Holy moly this 1984’s style of speech, if you read the book you know what I’m mentioning here. Anyway, doing shrooms will give you a better insight than that piece of propaganda.